Galaxy Young and the Galaxy Fame Offer Single and Dual-SIM Versions

The Galaxy Young and Galaxy Fame are two Samsung phones that attempt to bring a little taste of the Galaxy experience to those in South Korea (at the moment) who want the Galaxy experience without the price tag. In order to maintain the inexpensive nature of smartphones and bring them to those who may not have one (and cannot afford a luxury smartphone model), Samsung has produced two smartphones that are not spec-impressive but provide the necessary smartphone experience.

The Samsung Galaxy Young comes with the following features and specs:

3.27-inch display

320 x 480 screen resolution

3-megapixel camera (rear-facing, no front-facing camera)

Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

768MB RAM

1Ghz, dual-core processor

1,300mAh battery

4GB internal memory storage

MicroSD card slot for memory storage expansion up to 64GB

Available in four colors: metallic silver, white, deep blue, and wine red

The 3.27-inch display is a rather small reading screen, smaller than the iPhone 4 and 4S. The smaller screen size appeals to some consumers, although I find it hard to read on screens smaller than four inches. With smaller screens, I tend to place the phone closer to my face than tall and wide screens. The 1,300mAh battery will provide somewhere between 4-5 hours of talk time, possibly more depending on whether or not you make phone calls, check email, surf the Web, play games, and watch movies. If you activate LTE to surf the Web with faster speed than Wi-Fi, you the battery will decrease faster than if you rely on a basic Wi-Fi network.

Many smartphones have a random access memory (RAM) of 1GB, but the Galaxy Young has 768MB RAM, which places the phone at a less-than-impressive position. The plus side to the Galaxy Young is that it comes with a MicroSD card slot and provides an additional 64GB of internal memory storage. The phone thus provides 68GB of internal memory storage. 68GB is a lot of memory storage, and someone will appreciate the large storage in a phone with few “ooohhhhs” and “aaahhhs”. Finally, the Galaxy Young will sport Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is only four months old. While Google has already updated its Nexus devices with 4.2 Jelly Bean, and looks to bring a 4.2.2 update soon on its Nexus 7, Nexus 4, and Galaxy Nexus (along with others), the 4.1 update is the best OS for Samsung devices at the moment. There is an exception to this rule, however: there are some Samsung devices at the moment that have received the Premium Suite Upgrade (4.1.2). As a US Cellular customer, however, I have yet to receive the PS Upgrade and have only had Jelly Bean for two months. With that said, Samsung is rolling out Jelly Bean (4.1) to its older devices such as the Galaxy S2, but the PS Upgrade has only come to a few Galaxy customers. The 4.1 OS, thus, is still up-to-date by OS standards.

The Galaxy Fame comes with the following features and specifications:

3.5-inch display

320 x 480 screen resolution

5-megapixel camera

Near Field Communication (NFC)

1Ghz dual-core processor

512MB RAM

4GB internal memory storage

MicroSD card slot up to 64GB

1,300mAh battery

Android 4.2.1

Available colors: metallic blue and white

The 3.5-inch display is akin to the iPhones 4 and 4S, which are both still selling extremely well for Apple. This is to say that the display is nothing to be ashamed of. You do have a smaller amount of RAM in the Fame (512BMB) than you do in the Young (768MB), but the trade-off comes with a better camera (5MP), wider screen (3.5 vs. 3.27 inches), NFC, and Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean). Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is the latest OS update for Android devices, so it’s remarkable that this affordable smartphone will come with the latest and greatest of Android.

Both the Galaxy Young and Fame will be offered in single-SIM and dual-SIM versions and will be available this March 2013. As usual, Samsung offers low-range devices that provide a little taste of current specs while avoiding tech overload. Way to go, Samsung!